Cut Your Blood Pressure 3

recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine (Victor et al. N Engl J Med 2018; 378: 1291-301) solid evidence of the efficacy of a pharmacist-led medication management intervention to reduce blood pressure in black men that patronize barbershops.

the study enrolled a cohort of 319 hypertensive non-Hispanic black male patrons from 52 black-owned barbershops in Los Angeles County into a cluster-randomized trial in which barbershops (non-traditional health care setting) were assigned to either a pharmacist-led intervention (in which barbers encouraged in-person meetings with pharmacists who then prescribed drug therapy under a collaborative practice agreement with the participants' doctors) or an active control approach (in which barbers encouraged lifestyle modification and doctor appointments).

At 6 months, the mean systolic blood pressure fell by 27.0 mmHg in the intervention group and by 9.3 mmHg in the control group. A blood pressure level of less than 130/80 was achieved in 64% of the participants in the intervention versus 12% of participants in the control group.

the study team are applying for this grant as a first step in transitioning this evidence-based intervention into a scalable program. Specifically, the study team will do a pilotstudy to test whether the impressive effects on blood pressure can be maintained just as well if face-to face meetings are substituted with telemonitoring after blood pressure is at goal. If successful this approach would markedly increase efficiency by increasing the number of patients a single pharmacist can manage.

Non-Hispanic black men have the highest rate of hypertension-related death of any racial, ethnic, or sex group in the United States. Black men have less physician interaction than black women and lower rates of hypertension treatment and control, necessitating community outreach. Because black men with hypertension often have multiple cardiovascular risk factors, marked reductions in blood pressure - if sustained with the use of our approach and then initiated more widely - might reduce the high rates of hypertension-related disability and death among black men in the United States.

The study team want to demonstrate that participants in this pilot can achieve similar blood pressure reduction at 12 months (as compared to those in our previous trial) when telemedicine is substituted for in-person pharmacist visits after 3 months.